Fluxo de água virtual no Brasil.

Abstract

The scarcity of water for human consumption has increased at an alarming rate worldwide. With the significant increase in population, and their water needs, it began to concern about a possible shortage of the resource, promoting actions in the face of rational use of water resources. The improved water management plays a vital role in increasing food production and reducing food insecurity, it is in this context that come the concepts of virtual water and water footprint who want both to use the dimensions of the water bill usually ignored and communicate effectively and objectively the actual consumption required to obtain a product. The objective of this study is to determine the water footprint of national consumption, the virtual water flow of the main commodities consumed by the brazilian people and water scarcity, water self-sufficiency and water dependency indexes for the 27 commodities analyzed in this study, as well as for each state and country. The average brazilian water footprint is 1,619 m³/person/year. The beef cattle commodity had largest contribution (21%) of the total water footprint of national consumption. The Northeast region is the one with the largest volume of net import of virtual water for the group of agricultural commodities with Gm³ 2.38 / year, with a net import also for the livestock group. On the other hand, it is the second region with the highest volume of net export of virtual water for industrial goods with Gm³ 2.24 / year, second only to the Southeast. The indexes used in the survey indicate that Brazil is not self-sufficient in all commodities analyzed in this study, however for the agricultural, industrial and livestock sectors showed positive balances indicating independence of the external water resources. The results also indicate that Brazil is exporter of virtual water with a balance of 54.8 m³/year, mainly for the European continent which respond by 41.28% of the total virtual water exports from Brazil.